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July 2009, Week 2

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:15:26 -0400
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--- Forwarded Message from David Kleinberg <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:46:01 -0400
>From: David Kleinberg <[log in to unmask]>
>User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (Windows/20090605)
>To:  Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum   
<[log in to unmask]>,        [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: #9185 Supporting Blind FL Students
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

Hi Sharon,

Here are some things I learned while teaching two different blind 
students this last Spring. My understanding of the Americans with 
Disability Act (ADA) says you need to provide equal access to students 
with disabilities, but not above and beyond what other students have 
access to. The instructors will have to take things one day at a time 
and be flexible, but still plan enough ahead that teaching materials can 
be made accessible to the students in time.

1. You should work closely with your university's disability services 
office. They will have the expertise regarding helping students with 
disabilities, and may have some of the resources already available, such 
as braille printers, screen reading software, etc. They may also be able 
to advise you whether or not the department's webpages (i.e. course web 
pages or Blackboard/WebCT/Moodle...) are accessible to a blind student.

2. Look into screen reading software like JAWS 
(http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp). 
Your university's office of disabilities services may be able to 
purchase this for you. At Winthrop, we had the software installed on 
every public lab computer (including the language lab), and the licenses 
were tied in to the blind students' Windows profiles, so they could use 
JAWS on any public computer and the university only purchased a small 
handful of licenses. JAWS can also be set to pronounce foreign languages 
fairly accurately. You can also put this on the student's personal 
laptop, or they may already have it.

3. Ask the textbook publishers for electronic versions of the German 
textbooks. They were willing to provide these to the blind student at 
the same price as a regular textbook. The electronic (PDF) version will 
be usable in conjunction with software like JAWS. Get your request in 
EARLY, as the publishers were very slow to respond to requests from 
disability services, but they did come through in the end. The online 
resources that a publisher provides as textbook supplements should also 
be very useful, in particular audio tracks.

4. Any class handouts that are originally Word documents, or PowerPoint  
lecture files (minus the graphics of course) are useful to the blind 
student if they are using JAWS. PDF handouts that are scans of other 
documents will not be usable, of course. If the student has limited or 
partial sight, they may be able to zoom into PDF files to read them. If 
handouts are from magazines or books, have the instructor check if there 
is an online version of the text that can be read by computers.

5. My university's disability services was willing to hire readers to 
read the textbooks out loud onto tape/mp3, and to retype texts into a 
computer file readable by Jaws. Do let them know that German characters 
such as A, a, O, o, U, u, B can written as Ae, ae, Oe, oe, Ue, ue, ss 
respectively. Braille does not allow for umlauts and double-S. They can 
also proctor exams and quizzes, including listening comprehension 
(record audio as MP3s using audacity) if you give them enough notice.

6. Try to schedule your courses in an easily accessible classroom space, 
especially if the student has a seeing-eye dog. Elevators are good, 
ground-floor classrooms are even better.

I hope that helps. If I think of anything else I'll chime in later.

-Dave

-- 
David Kleinberg, Ph.D.

Language Lab Director
Instructor of German
Department of Modern Languages
Winthrop University
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Web: http://www.kleinberg.net


LLTI-Editor wrote:
> --- Forwarded Message from Sharon Scinicariello
<[log in to unmask]>
> ---
>
>   
>> From: Sharon Scinicariello <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: Information Forum Learning and Technology International Language   
>>     
> <[log in to unmask]>
>   
>> Subject: Supporting Blind FL Students
>> Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:07:47 -0400
>>     
>
> Hello!
>
> I have been asked to find out how our LRC can support a blind incoming  
> student who wants to continue his study of German.  We currently have  
> no adaptive technology but are willing to acquire whatever might be  
> useful.
>
> Do those of you with experience in this area have recommendations?
>
> Thank you,
> Sharon Scinicariello
> Director, Global Studio
> Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures
> University of Richmond, VA 23173 
>
>



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